FCS Roundtable: Storylines to Watch in 2011

Kickoff is just a week away and the energy is palpable. The Championship Subdivision kickoffs Thursday, Sept. 1, with Western Illinois and Sam Houston State. The FCS had two huge news items SaturdayBlitz.com will have more on later: Appalachian State’s Feasibility Study recommending a move to FBS, and the sudden resignation of Richmond head coach LaTrell Scott. Are these the first of many big stories to unfold this autumn? The Roundtable breaks it down.

Joe Suhoski, VBR Productions

From a personal perspective the biggest storyline is how Old Dominion University football will perform in the CAA. They accumulated a 17-5 record the first two years, playing as an Independent before joining CAA Football this season. After intentionally playing a weak schedule the first year, the program stepped up the competition with games against William and Mary and Cal-Poly. Despite losing those games (by a combined 17 points), they showed they can compete with top 25 FCS programs after only three recruiting classes. How will they fare against eight straight weeks against CAA programs?

Staying within the Colonial, Villanova is another program that intrigues me. Among the twelve starters they lose to graduation are four-year starting quarterback Chris Whitney, WR/RB/QB/Everything Else Matt Szczur, and Indianapolis Colts’ second-round draft pick Ben Ijalana. The recruiting classes that Coach Andy Talley has brought in appear to be rich with talent, but this is not the same team that won the 2009 national championship. How long will it take the inexperienced-but-talented program to get back on top?

Outside the CAA the biggest story for me is how the Southern Conference plays out. Appalachian State has had its share of success over the last few years and has gotten the most national attention. However, last year the other top dogs showed that they were ready to compete for national titles annually as well. Georgia Southern reached the FCS semifinals before losing to Delaware ; I expect GSU to reach at least that far in the playoffs again this season.

But both of these teams will have to get through Wofford – literally – before claiming the SoCon championship. After reaching last season’s quarter finals, the Terriers return eleven starters from last season’s conference champions, and have the advantage of playing both App. State and GSU at home. This is a top-heavy conference whose best three teams can compete with anyone else in FCS-land.

Ben Moore, PantherTalk.com and SBNation Atlanta

• UMASS and their final FCS season. They move to the MAC in 2012 and the CAA has basically said they will finish 0-0 in CAA play and not eligible for the Playoffs. Very odd.
• South Alabama playing FCS but not really. Another team headed to FBS in 2012 into the Sun Belt. Locally, Georgia State hosts them on Oct. 22 in a huge game that will likely be televised. How will they respond to the first loss(es) in the program’s history?
• Old Dominion in the CAA for the first time as full conference member. The Monarchs are in their 3rd year of existence and were a preseason next to last pick in the strongest conference in FCS. Will they suprised some people? I think they will and believe their defense will keep them in games all year long.

Kyle Roth, Bison Illustrated and The Bison Sports Blog

My number one speculative point is how the MVFC will turn out this season. After what many figure was a “down year” that left six of the nine teams in the conference tied with a 4-4 record, will a team or two be able to break out and have a truly dominant season in the Valley, or will the smashmouth style of football played in the midwest prove too much of a grind for any one team to truly run the table? Interestingly enough, the past three years running the team chosen first in coaches’ preseason conference poll has not made the playoffs (NDSU in ’08, UNI in ’09, and SIU in ’10), so breaking that trend will be perhaps hanging in the minds of Panther supporters this season. Speaking of smasmouth football, I wrote a column on this a few weeks back on the steady rise of quarterbacks in the Valley, and whether the conference will approach a more modern adaptation to the spread offenses slowly pervading college football will be an intriguing thing to keep an eye on with QBs like Ronnie Fouch, Kurt Hess and Matt Brown poised to have pretty big years in 2011.

Secondly, what can Montana State QB Denarius McGhee do with a year under his belt? McGhee, a freshman last season hailing from Euless, TX, was able to lead the Bobcats to what I thought was a surprising playoff seeding before bowing out in a first-round loss to NDSU. McGhee put up unreal numbers for a freshman (and a whole lot of FCS QBs) last season, totaling over 3100 yards and 23 TDs on 62.7% completion on the season. With western football being more or less nonexistent outside of the Pac-12 and schools like Boise St. and Utah, carving out a football niche in the FCS world is something of a challenge in itself – with a player like McGhee making headlines and on track for what should be another successful year as a mere sophomore, a player like this could do wonders for garnering some bigtime spotlight on the FCS world.

Finally, can FCS schools do what they did last season and win an unprecedented amount of games over FBS opponents? I’m not expecting a JMU-Virginia Tech upset like what happened last season, but with plenty of schools taking on lower-tier opponents (in the MVFC, look no further than NDSU-Minnesota, SDSU-Illinois, Indiana St.-WKU) the field is set for what could be a banner year for the FCS nation.

Russell Varner, SouthernPigskin.com

Appalachian State: Will the move to a 3-4 pay off?

For years, Wofford was the only team that use a 3-4 defense as their base defense. Not anymore. This offseason, the Mountaineers decided to switch from their traditional 4-3 defense to the three down lineman, four linebacker base defense as well. The move could be a sign of the times at Boone, as the move was made to better fit the new class of athletes Coach Jerry Moore has. The key to the D could rest in Lanston Tanyi, who missed all of last season with a left foot injury and is moving from the defensive line to linebacker. Early reports I’ve seen say he and the defense have looked strong so far. If that translates into the regular season, it’ll be hard to see App not get their seventh-straight conference title. Side note: the last time someone other than App won the conference title outright was in 2003.

Can anyone top the Mountaineers?

It seems to be one of the biggest questions entering each football season – can someone finally knock off the Mountaineers? The answer for so long has been no, but new challengers have stepped up again to challenge their Mountaineers’ reign. It looks like Georgia Southern, who ended App’s 26-game conference winning streak last year, and Wofford, who will host App, are the two favorites to knock off the Mountaineers. Both teams return a majority of their starters last year and feature some of the best players in the conference outside of Boone. The Eagles have defensive tackle Brent Russell, arguably the most dominant defensive force in the nation, while the Terriers have fullback Eric Breitenstein, who led the conference in rushing last year, and defensive end Ameet Pall, who was voted Co-Preseason Defensive Player of the Year along with Russell.

Who will play spoiler?

After the top three, the conference is one big cluster of teams. Chattanooga is widely considered the best of the rest, and for good reason. They have one of the best quarterbacks (B.J. Coleman) and wide receivers (Joel Bradford) in the conference and Coach Russ Huesman is one of the better coaches in the SoCon as well. Furman and Elon are full of unknowns this season, starting their first seasons with new coaches (Bruce Fowler and Jason Swepson respectively). But, the Paladins sport two of the best in the nation in linebacker Kadarron Anderson and cornerback Ryan Steed (widely considered the best FCS CB prospect) and the Phoenix have receiver Aaron Mellette and guard Rodney Austin on their side. Needless to say, these teams will surprise someone at some point this year and it will have a major effect on the SoCon title race. The only question that remains is when and where.